Harvesting white Crozes Hermitage started 2 weeks early under a glorious sunshine. The 2009 vintage looks promising as all the vintage years ending by 9 (1969,1979,1989,1999), besides the beautiful summer we have had is a good indication of a great vintage year.

A great year but small quantities. As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it.

Here’s the speech delivered by Olivier on that occasion (on March 22, 2008)

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

First of all, I’d like to thank all the people who helped me renovate this cross.

In this pre-Easter time, I’d like to thank apostle Jean Paul who designed and made this cross, then apostle Philippe who erected it, apostle Jacques who provided transportation and supplied concrete and finally apostle Jean Pierre who provided electricity and took the photos.

For those apostles, I’d say it’s « Mission Accomplished » so they deserve a big round of applause.

This cross is standing ( as many are ) at the crossroads, looking back to the past and looking forward to the future, it symbolises what makes the essence of our job which blends traditions and modernity.

Through this religious symbol, I’d like that each of us may have a special thought for all those generations of winegrowers, parents, grand parents, great grand parents who worked so hard to bring this terroir to us.

I can’t consider myself as the owner of this land but only as the warden of this heritage, and I will try to preserve and improve it.

These last years this plot of land has been regaining its fame thanks to the efforts of all those winegrowers.

To conclude, I’d like to call the attention of the ‘new local council’ to the most impressive heritage of Larnage, I mean, its castle disappearing under vegetation ( because you have to be born here to see those ruins as a castle )

I do know it is a tricky question but it would be nice to tackle the issue because time is running out.

Well, I must stop now, it’s time to celebrate so I invite you all for a drink in my winery.